Boston: more pretend “ordinations” – sad business

3 women to be ordained Catholic priests [Nooo… will pretend to be ordained.] in BostonExcommunication automatic, church warns

By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff | July 18, 2008

Three aspiring Catholic priests[B as in B. S as in S.] will be anointed and prayed over this weekend in an ordination liturgy that will resemble the traditional in most ways but one: The three [not] being ordained are women.

The [fake] ordination ceremony Sunday, at a historic Protestant church [That’s about right.] in the Back Bay, is the first such event to take place in Boston, one of the most Catholic cities in the nation. [?]

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, in accord with Vatican teaching, [two millennia of Christian tradition] says the participants in the ordination ceremony will be automatically excommunicating themselves.

But the women [not] being ordained say they are acting because they feel called to the priesthood and compelled to resist what they view as a wrong church teaching. [Because they get to make that determination, I guess. Right?]

"We’re part of a prophetic tradition of disobeying an unjust law," [Remember folks: reject premises. This isn’t unjust, because it is not a matter of justice, and it is not a law, but an infallible teaching.] said Gabriella Velardi Ward, a 61-year-old Staten Island architect with two children and five grandchildren, who will [not] be ordained along with Gloria Carpeneto of Baltimore and Mary Ann McCarthy Schoettly of Newton, N.J.

Ward said she has wanted to be a priest since age 5, [And her parents dropped the ball on that one, I guess. They should have taught her better. But, then again.. you can’t always accomplish what you want with kids, can you.] and that she actively considered becoming a nun before deciding that the priesthood was her calling because she wants to be able to celebrate Catholic sacraments. [She can! Just not as a priest.]

"Excommunication or not, I will still be a validly ordained priest[This is simply a wicked lie.] and still will be able to serve the people of God," she said.

The women are to be [fictionally] ordained by Dana Reynolds, a California woman who was [not] consecrated as a bishop in Germany in April.

Reynolds and the others are part of an organization called Roman Catholic Womenpriests, which has been holding [invalid] ordination ceremonies for women since 2002; the organization says there are now 28 women Catholic [pretending to be] priests in the United States.

Among those already ordained is Jean Marchant, a former director of healthcare ministry for the Archdiocese of Boston, who with her husband presides over a small congregation that has a weekly Catholic Eucharist in a Protestant church in Weston.

The organization says its ordinations are valid because its first bishops were ordained by Catholic bishops in good standing – bishops whose names have not been released because they would face sanction by the Vatican. [Gratis asseritur gratis negatur. Besides, a real bishop can no more ordain a woman than I can transsubstantiate a banana into the Body of Christ. It just doesn’t work.]

But the Vatican says the ordinations are illegal [Not only illegal but invalid. INVALID. NULL! ZERO! VOID! Can they not get why it is "illegal" to attempt to ordain women? Because it is invalid and therefore makes a mockery of the sacrament of Holy Orders!] under church law[The newsie is sticking to the shallow end of the pool.] and yesterday the Archdiocese of Boston sent an e-mail to all priests declaring that women play key roles in the church, but cannot be priests.

"Catholics who attempt to confer a sacred order on a woman, and the women who attempt to receive a sacred order, are by their own actions separating themselves from the church," the archdiocese said. "As a faith community rooted in the loving ministry of Jesus Christ, we pray for those who have willingly fallen away from the church by participating in such activities."

The [false] ordination will be Sunday afternoon in Church of the Covenant on Newbury Street in Boston’s Back Bay. The church is affiliated with two Protestant denominations, the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the United Church of Christ.

The interim pastor of Church of the Covenant, the Rev. Jennifer Wegter-McNelly, said the congregation decided to rent its historic space, [sounds like a form of ecclesiological prostitution] with Tiffany windows depicting women of the Bible, at a nominal fee to show support.

"It’s our effort to encourage and celebrate with them," Wegter-McNelly said. "This church’s commitment to women goes back a long time." [As if the Catholic Church doesn’t have a committment to women. Right.]

The ceremony has been scheduled to coincide with the first joint conference of four organizations pushing for the admission of married men, as well as of women, to the priesthood. That conference begins today at the Hyatt Harborside.

In St. Louis, a recent Catholic women’s [fake] ordination ceremony at a synagogue led to a rift in Catholic-Jewish relations. [When you are that rude and obstuse, bad things happen to dialogue.]

The Boston archdiocese declined to comment about the Protestant church’s decision to allow the dissident Catholics to meet there. [Wow. A sentence that got it right!]

The Vatican has repeatedly said that women cannot be priests because Jesus did not have female apostles. [Not the only reason, of course. But notice how this shallow comment leaves the impression that the Church is behind the times, etc.]

In 1994, in the most definitive recent Vatican statement[not a teaching, I guess, just a policy statement] on the issue, Pope John Paul II issued an apostolic letter in which he wrote, "I declare that the church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women."

In its own statement, sent to priests by a vicar general, the Rev. Richard M. Erikson, the archdiocese said, "The ordination of men to the priesthood is not merely a matter of practice or discipline within the Catholic Church, but rather, it is part of the unalterable Deposit of Faith handed down by Christ through his apostles." [Ahhh… clarity.]

But the archdiocese also said it hopes the women involved will seek "reconciliation" with the Catholic Church, and said, "Following our devotion to Mary, the church is committed to, and sustained by the many important contributions of women each and every day."

53 Responses to Boston: more pretend “ordinations” – sad business

Correction: The July 18, 2008 article entitled “3 women to be ordained catholic priests” stated “…Boston, one of the most Catholic cities in the nation.” The sentence should have read “…Boston, once one of the most Catholic cities in the nation, but now home to numerous dissidents and malcontents claiming allegiance to the Catholic Church.”

Classic Boston Globe, marching in lock-step with misguided souls such as these. We need better catechesis for the whole of the Church forthwith. Maybe then we wouldn’t have 1) as many people going down the path of error; and 2) as many people lining up to follow them.

Wow…this is just sad. What has happened to Catechesis in America? This is a painful thing to read, but cynically humorous because of the frank commentary (thanks for that by the way Fr. Z).

Otherwise it is no laughing matter.

Growing up (so long ago…the nineties), we always knew women could not be priests. We didn’t even question it. We didn’t know the theological reasons behind it, but it was just ingrained in our minds. We can just pray for them all.

Or, as a priest (Episcopalian, and at the time completely opposed to women’s ordination in the Episcopal church) once said regarding the subject, “It is a metaphysical impossibility for a woman to become a priest. It’s like putting a shoe in an oven and calling it a biscuit.”

Sadly these women are old enough to have received proper, pre-V2 catechism. They just choose to ignore it. As far as the Presbyterian church, and the UCC, well, no surprise they were willing to help stick a finger in the eye of the Catholic Church.

The Archdiocese of Boston should continue to LOUDLY denounce these women and point out they have made the choice to separate themselves from the church.

“If you call a tail a leg, how many legs has a dog?”, asked Lincoln once. “The answer: four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.”

These priestesses (who, by choosing the made-up name “womenpriests” instinctively understand that priestesses signify some religion other than Christianity — cf. C.S. Lewis’ article “Priestesses in the Church?”) just don’t want to accept that the matter of the sacraments is not malleable according to human will. They are cut from the same cloth as those who want to “marry” same-sex couples, “consecrate” rice cakes for the Eucharist, and baptize in some name other than Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

I suspect stories like don’t do a better job presenting the Catholic position in large measure because of how the spokesperson for the local diocese handles the matter.

Yes, the media is biased, but they aren’t really smart enough about the theological issues involved even to know how to mess it up the right way, and while they don’t mind taking sides in these things, they generally want to pound out a story without doing too much work; and if the spokesperson does his or her job right, it becomes too much work to re-arrange what the spokesperson gives the reporter.

Before I was a seminarian, I did p.r. for a political organization, so I know about dealing with reporters with bias. You can get around it effectively if you do your job right.

And I can tell you, a lot of folks who do the job, particularly as spokespersons for the Church, don’t do their job very well.

And they end up being the source of the bad framing “illegal,” “the Vatican’s position,” etc.

In fairness, being able to explain things in a vivid and pithy way isn’t easy. A lot of people explain things badly, even those who talk to the media.

I note that cnn.com has a “3 women to be ordained Catholic priests” headline on this,linking to WCVB’s thebostonchannel.com.

It’s undignified for a religion,but the way the Scientologists suppress distribution of embarrassing “scriptures” via copyright law,I wonder if trademark-related litigation could be pursued to inhibit misrepresentation?Those who believe that “God has conferred the sacrament of marriage” on same-sex couples are backed by groups like the Twin-Cities-based “Catholic Pastoral Committee for Sexual Minorities” (cpcsm.org) which seems to cross a line that could be defended…not just being an organization of dissenting members (like Catholics for Choice),but purporting to have a religious objective within the Catholic Church while being dedicated to opposing its religious teachings.

In a similar vein one would expect to see the Catholic Atheist Theological [Atheoligical?] Academy,or the Catholic Satanist Seminary for Black Mass Liturgy,perhaps presenting the Michael Schiavo Prize for Catholic Understanding of Humane End-life Care.

In other news, I will be inaugurated the 44th President of the United States of America on January 20, 2009. A senile old judge who lives up the street will officiate my taking of the oath of office. This oppressive business about elections needs to be done away with and in a heroic act of prophetic disobedience, I will be the conduit of this divinely willed change. And I trust The Boston Globe to report on this by conferring all legitimacy on my invalid usurpation.

This Dana Reynolds lives in my diocese, sadly. When she was “ordained” a priest (priestess?), there was an article in the local paper, filled with errors. I wrote a “letter to the editor” to clear things up and it was published, much to my surprise! I later denounced her to the Inquisition (i.e., forwarded the newspaper articles to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) and received a nice thank you letter from them!

Ms. Reynolds was in the local news this past April during the Holy Father’s visit. She was referred to as a “hospice chaplain” which really worries me… preying on the dying who might think they are receiving a sacrament when they are not?! So very dangerous… :-(

You know, this man I know really wants to be a mother. He feels called to the vocation of motherhood. If he says it often enough, and loud enough, and with enough press attention, do you think that God will eventually give in and let him get pregnant…?
;-)

As I stated in another post this results from dissent at the top. US Bishops. Inadvertently by always going up against Rome on so many issues, communion kneeling, Latin in liturgy, etc., they instill this mentality in their faithful. As a US Church goer, I can state this. Having grown up with this my mentality was shaped to think we always have the right to go against what the Holy Pope says. That in no way makes me immaculate and I am in disagreement with some Church law, however I respect it, believe if I am in disagreement that I must pray because I am wrong. Bottom line. But that wisdom comes with years of learning. Some people never reach that point as is the case with women who seek ordination. It is incorrect and I do not think most lay people would agree with their decision..In fact I do not think it will “catch on” and people will eventually abandon their service or relinquish their support…Again in years time, and let’s hope in the meantime that US Bishops do not try to make this the “norm” here.

You can clearly see that these women hold an ideology that considers any acknowledgment of sexual differences and roles to be an oppressive insult since they don’t claim to be “priestesses” but “priests”.

It irritates me that these “womenpriests” are so often presented by the secular media as the “modern Catholic woman”, as if that is what ALL of us (women in the Church) want. I worry that it makes the rest of us look like fools right along with them, because so many people seem to buy into the “disobeying an unjust law” garbage and think it’s a very “now” idea- certainly ALL Catholic women must feel that way, right?
There ARE faithful, orthodox Catholic women out there- they just don’t make headlines. Being obedient just is not very interesting.
I wish someone could get it into these women’s heads that they are (were) an essential part of the Church without being a priests (or pretending to do so). Although now that they are “ordained” they aren’t even that anymore. Very sad indeed.
I was discussing this with my husband, who is Lutheran (not the kind that has female ministers!). And he said, “Do you think stuff like this (dissent on this scale) would happen if there hadn’t been so much upheaval and change in the church back in the 60’s?”
I agree with Mitch above- the dissent goes back and starts much higher than we want to think. If you can (effectively) ditch Latin, stand for communion in the hand and clap your way through the Mass of the Electric Guitar…hey, why not put some women in vestments too?

As a former liberal/extreme-environmentalist/new ager/feminist who converted to Catholicism and recently began attending the traditional Latin Mass, I just have to say: This article makes me want to go put on my veil.

I can’t imagine what possesses these women to pretend to the priesthood. Most of them are married with children and grandchildren, have careers, and have been active in ministry. Don’t they realize what they have? Do they think they deserve to “have it all”? What folly!

Even if they could be validly ordained, these particular women would lack a fundamental bond and identification with Christ and with His priests–namely, sacrifice. Nearly all of our priests have sacrificed marriage and having children, among many other things. Furthermore, priests are obedient to the Church and to their superiors, just as Christ was obedient to His Father. These women don’t seem to be willing to sacrifice anything or be obedient to anybody. It’s all about them and their wants.

The fact is, they aren’t at all interested in being “equal to” or “the same as” real Catholic priests. They think they are too good for that. That makes the whole farce even more galling.

Many who don’t accept the ordination of women as priests refer to them as priestesses. I fear now they are refering to pretended female bihops as bishopesses. Such talk is inexcusable! We all know it should be bishopettes!

As long as the Church permits female “near-priests” – altar girls and EMs – She will continue to encourage these “ordinations”. I’m convinced the vast majority of bishops and cardinals really do want priestesses and are trying hard to make it a fait accompli by using altar girls to dry up the pool of altar boys as future priests. Sooner or later, one of these bishops and cardinals will become the pope.

“Why do we use friendly terms like dissenters? Why can’t we use more accurate words like heretic?”

)(

There is a difference. A dissenter is merely one who disagrees or does not follow. A heretic is one who knows and deliberately speaks against the knowledge. What a dissenter knows or doesn’t in relation to the dissent has to be examined. Likewise the heretic actually. ;)

It looks like somebody got the Globe to undertake the sacrament of Clarification. The on-line story now has this tag at the end:

Clarification: The main headline on a report in yesterday’s City and Region section may have led to the erroneous impression that three women will be recognized as priests by the Roman Catholic Church after their ordination tomorrow. As the report and a subordinate headline made clear, the women’s status after the ordination is a matter of dispute. Although the organization hosting the ceremony will consider the women to be Catholic priests, the Vatican and the Archdiocese of Boston will regard them as having excommunicated themselves and therefore as being neither Catholic nor priests.

TB wrote: “As a former liberal/extreme-environmentalist/new ager/feminist who converted to Catholicism and recently began attending the traditional Latin Mass, I just have to say: This article makes me want to go put on my veil.”

My sentiments exactly. I also agree with TJ about many in the higher ranks (at least in the American church) being in favor of such “ordinations.” I keep hearing comments in my own parish to the effect that it’s just a matter of time. Since women are now allowed and encouraged to do everything else in the sanctuary, barring them from the priesthood is seen as arbitrary.

I’m gonna be an “advocate for the devil” and be a little understanding with the Journalist, who probably does not cover this kind of information really often. We journalists need more doctrinal formation, or a good Fr.Zuhlsdorf to tell us if what we’re writing makes sense at all! ;)

“But the archdiocese also said it hopes the women involved will seek
‘reconciliation’ with the Catholic Church, and said, ‘Following our devotion to Mary, the church is committed to, and sustained by the many important contributions of women each and every day.'”

The Archdiocese of Boston is my home diocese and I have to say that this last line comes off as being incredibly weak.

Have they not read what these women are openly saying in defiance of Holy Mother Church? The Archdiocese is expecting on-the-spot conversions.

That just is not going to happen and someone should know better than to make such ridiculous remarks.

It seems to me that these “ordinations”, besides being publicity stunts, are only a tip of the iceberg. Those who want women “priests” in the Roman Catholic Church have a very convenient, if a slower and a less spectacular vehicle, in the “Sunday Celebrations Without a Priest” liturgies. Many dioceses experiencing a severe and worsening priest shortage allow these alternative liturgies led by male and female laity, or sometimes a sister. My own diocese reports that it has about 250 lay men and women, certified for a period of three years, ready to celebrate them.

In my view, the question if these new laity led liturgies will be used on an emergency basis, or become more or less a permanent way of life, can be answered by our experience with the “extraordinary” eucharistic ministers. For those among us who have only a vague notion of what a Mass is, these Sunday Celebrations Without a Priest will become the de facto new “Masses” led by women “priests”. With the added bonus of keeping a priest-less “parish” open indefinitely.

I think that Fr. Fox’s comments are spot on. The media has a template that they follow and the reporter doesn’t want to work too hard, especially when the story does not fit the template.

As far as Church spokesmen are concerned, yes, some are not very good. But then again, a person can give a very good but dry explanation and the reported butchers it to make the story. Kevin’s complaint about a weak ending is a case in point. What else did the priest say to make it much clearer that the reporter did not use?

Michael Davies, the great scholar whom the Pope recently eulogized, would argue that the issue here is that in the wake of the reforms Vatican II, especially because the new Ordinal, people are now unable to distinguish between the protestant and the Catholic view of the priesthood. (See “The Order of Melchizedech: A Defense of the Roman Catholic Priesthood”)

If priests are simply members of the laity who have been publicly recognized (ordained) by an ecclesial body to give them authority to preach and offer sacraments, then it WOULD IN FACT be unjust and sexist not to ordain women. After all, if we are all priest, prophet, and king by virtue of our baptism (and we ARE. See Trent) and if there is nothing different about the priesthood, then all laity have the power to preach and offer the sacraments. In protestantism all ordination does is give authority to a member of the laity to function in the PROFESSION of minister publicly. This is for good order and the avoidance of chaos. Why would anyone deny this to women? Sexism is the only answer. Hence the rage and dissent. These folks simply DO NOT KNOW what the Catholic Church has always taught about the Priesthood, and have effectively become protestants because of it. They are enraged by the Church’s position because they are coming from a protestant paradigm.

But in the Church Christ founded, we discover clearly implied in Scripture (and clearly developed in Tradition) the notion that priests are not simply members of the laity who been recognized and therefore can preach and offer sacraments. Rather, Holy Orders is a SACRAMENT that is an efficacious sign of God’s Grace. Like Baptism, there is a spiritual effect. The lay man, when ordained, undergoes a transformation by the power of God. That SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION is what empowers priests in the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church to offer SACRIFICE. (That is what priests do). Rather than having as their primary role “preaching” and then “offering sacraments” the Catholic priest is primarily called to make present on the altars of the world the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Blessed Lord, Jesus Christ. By ordination, the priest becomes an alter Chirstus, and himself IS a victim sacrificed for the rest of us. What man of honor would ever allow a woman to be a victim for the good of his salvation? Have we lost all sense of manhood and womanhood?

If we wouldn’t baptize without a valid substance: water (the Bible and Tradition command the use of water) we wouldn’t ordain without valid matter as well: a MAN (the Bible and Tradition command the ordination of a man). Woman’s ordination is impossible not for any other reason. We wouldn’t baptize with soda. We wouldn’t ordain someone other than a man.

These women’s ordinations are just a sign that the protestant view of the priesthood has become the norm for most of the Catholic laity (and most theologians) post the Second Vatican Council.

Is this not the fault of the way the Council was interpreted and put into practice, even by the Popes? (The SSPX position on this seems relatively reasoned) Just look at the new Ordinal and compare it to the old. This, along with the laity’s refusal to obey the teaching of Humane Vitae, is the BIG reasons we have a “vocations crisis.” And very few in the Church’s hierarchy seem willing to talk about the problem.

This is the problem here. These folks engaging in this dissent are good people who simply have never been taught (by the Church herself since the council quite frankly) exactly what IS DIFFERENT about the PRIESTHOOD as opposed to the protestant MINISTRY.

Thus, they only perceive the Church’s “refusal” to Ordain women as a “ban” that is unjust. Because they do not know, or do not believe, the truth of what the priesthood is, they cannot perceive the Church’s teaching as the POSITIVE it is.

I might add that loss of faith in the nature of the priesthood is also what has led to the recent crisis. If priests are a) not healthily heterosexual, and b) do not BELIEVE that they are making a sacrifice of the lives for the salvation of souls then c) they will not act that way. Belief leads to practice.

Fr., if it ever comes to that, please send me an e-mail. No man of the cloth should be subjected to any kind of wine which comes in a box. What a travesty!
Comment by Bryan Jackson

Actually, US table wines have improved considerably–and the box (or bag within in) keeps the wine from turning.

Incidentally, during my years in Rome the wine truck (looked like a small gasoline truck) would pull up outside the Convitto San Tommaso, where I lived. Then they would bring a hose into the wine room and fill up the large vats.

Mr. Paulson of The Boston Daily Worker (as we call it here) has his own little blog and he’s honest enough to admit that he’s gotten a lot of feedback about his article. There are the usual comments, but I was pleasantly surprised to find quite a few rational and lucid explanations of the Church’s teachings and beliefs. Could some of these have come from…WDTPRS readers? Nice work!

Michael Paulson isn’t just any staff writer that the Globe assigned to cover the story. He is the religion reporter of the Boston Globe – and the reporter who wrote most of the stories when The Globe broke The Scandal in 2002. The Globe won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for this coverage. Paulson later covered the 2005 conclave for The Globe, and covers the Catholic Church to this day. In fact, he wrote the story that Father Z posted around 1 July about the closure of Holy Trinity.

For someone of Paulson’s supposed experience and stature to write a story that requires such clarification indicates his – and, through the editing (or lack thereof) of the story – the Globe’s bias on this issue.

We might also mention the fact that our Saviour was male not by biological chance, but by design. Let them reflect on that for a while, and derive the logical conclusions as to the nature of His priests.

When Googling Gloria Carpeneto one discovers that less than a year ago she led a retreat for the Ignatian volunteers in the Maryland Jesuit province. How wonderful (not) that the Society of Jesus is so inclusive as to raise up as a spiritual leader one who denies the teaching of Holy Father, whom the Society is vowed to obey, and the deposit of faith as established by Our Lord, whose Name they bear.

What do you expect from the secular media, which is under the control of those who are under control of the devil (generally)? They repeat and repeat to break down objections. And it’s part of the desensitization campaign, as well as demonization of those who object to such errors. The “gay agenda” has been doing this for 20 years. Expect more and more of this on all fronts. That’s why we are the Church Militant. Keep fighting!

In St. Louis, a recent Catholic women’s [fake] ordination ceremony at a synagogue led to a rift in Catholic-Jewish relations.

FR Z, I don’t know if you were intending your comments to be funny, but I found them HILLARIOUS! It was as if you were underscoring the utter lunacy and preposterous nature of this article (and women mentioned whithin) in its (their) own attempt to be taken seriously. Anyway, I thought it was great. Thanks, and good on ya’.

My only issue with this article is the above comment highlighted. The Judaism we see today is virtually unrecognizable from the Judaism practiced up until the time of the destruction of the temple. And it is anything but monolithic. There is no global heirarchy or “pope” to speak of. The actions of a female rabbi of the Reform tradition (who are not even recognized by most Orthodox or hassidic traditions) mean little to the overall Jewish-Catholic dialogues taking place today. I think most Jewish leaders, even if they WERE to hear about this incident (which I really doubt they would since it is so insignificant) would probably just shrug and say “feh.” And I sincerely doubt the magesterium pays attention or gives any real credence to this either. Certainly they would not hold international judaism accountable for it.

Actually, US table wines have improved considerably—and the box (or bag within in) keeps the wine from turning.

De gustibus non est disputandum (*rolling eyes*)

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unto Thee,and turn away the scourges of
Thine anger which we deserve for our sins.
Almighty and Everlasting God, in
whose Hand are the power and the
government of every realm: look down upon
and help the Christian people that the heathen
nations who trust in the fierceness of their
own might may be crushed by the power of
thine Arm. Through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee
in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world
without end. R. Amen.

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I carry one of these super-strong rosaries in my spare mag pouch! The Swiss Guards have them too!

The Swiss Guard have these rosaries!For the story clickHERE and HERE (esp. 18:00)

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Food For Thought

“The legalization of the termination of pregnancy is none other than the authorization given to an adult, with the approval of an established law, to take the lives of children yet unborn and thus incapable of defending themselves. It is difficult to imagine a more unjust situation, and it is very difficult to speak of obsession in a matter such as this, where we are dealing with a fundamental imperative of every good conscience — the defense of the right to life of an innocent and defenseless human being.”

For your consideration…

"One of the most dangerous errors is that civilization is automatically bound to increase and spread. The lesson of history is the opposite; civilization is a rarity, attained with difficulty and easily lost. The normal state of humanity is barbarism, just as the normal surface of the planet is salt water. Land looms large in our imagination and civilization in history books, only because sea and savagery are to us less interesting."

- C.S. Lewis

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“I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history.”

Francis Card. George

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"It will never be known what acts of cowardice have been committed for fear of not looking sufficiently progressive."

Charles Pierre PéguyNotre Patrie, 1905

"If I ought to write the truth, I am of the mind that I ought to flee all meetings of bishops, because I have never seen any happy or satisfactory outcome to any council, nor one that has deterred evils more than it has occasioned their acceptance and growth."

St. Gregory Nazianzus
ep. 131 - AD 382

“We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women. If we do not reach that time, then our children and grandchildren will reach it, and they will sell your sons as slaves at the slave market.”

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“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”

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Food For Thought

“Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites. . . . Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.”

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The opinions expressed on this blog do not necessarily reflect the positions of any of the Catholic Church's entities with which I am involved. They are my own. Opinions expressed by commentators in the comments belong to the commentators.